Cultivation
Cultivation Levels Path of Heavens Path of Heavens is the path followed by those who wish to become an Immortal Emperor of the Nine Worlds. In this path one must compete for the Heaven's Will in his generation. Once the cultivator successfully attains (shoulders) the Heaven's Will, he becomes an Immortal Emperor. The first Immortal Emperor shouldered Heavens Will in the Desolate Era. As an Immortal Emperor in the Nine Worlds, one can open a small crack in the barrier between the Nine Worlds and the Tenth World. The crack needs to be big enough for him to ascend to the Tenth World. Once an Immortal Emperor attains Heavens Will they fuse it into their Fate Palace. They can fuse up to six (of twelve) Nine Worlds Heavens wills into their Fate Palace. Upon reaching the Tenth World they can shoulder additional Heaven's Will from the Tenth World. The Tenth Worlds Cultivators each have three occasions when they can absorb (shoulder) Heavens Will with each person capable of infusing four Heavens Will into their Fate Palace each time. If a Cultivator was to shoulder four Heavens Will each time and had 12 Fate palaces then they can become a 12 strip Heavens WIll Cultivator which are the apex of Cultivators of the Tenth World of which there have only ever been seven. Path of Godhood If a peak Virtuous Paragon/Dao Celestial doesn't wish to dispute for the Heaven's Will, he can follow the path of Godhood, becoming a Divine Monarch and later on a Divine King. Although a Divine King cannot become a Immortal Emperor , he can become a High God (True God in The Nine Worlds although for most in Nine Worlds just a title but Li Qiye has trained some actual True Gods e.g. True God Zen Shie) by infusing Great Dao in his own Fate Palaces, ultimately forming a totem. If a High God forms 12 totems successfully, he receives the title of Ancient God. Cultivation terms Merit Law/Cultivation Technique A cultivator of any rank can create a merit law. Merit laws allow people to cultivate. The Merit Law's rank corresponds to that of the cultivator that created them. e.g. a Merit Law created by a Virtuous Paragon would be a Virtuous Paragon Merit Law and one created by an Immortal Emperor would be a Immortal Emperor Merit Law. Any Merit Law created will centre around one of the three things all Cultivators posses: A Fate Palace, a Life Wheel or a Physique. Fate Palace / True Fate Every single person is born with only one Fate Palace, known as the True Fate. They will only have the True Fate until they start Cultivating. In order to start cultivating one must use one's Blood Energy to "Knock" on the gate in order to open their True Fate and the less "Knocks" you do the higher the innate talent. The more "doors" you open inside your True Fate the more profound your Cultivation can be. If a cultivator's True Fate is destroyed then they wil die. The Fate palace will appear above your head if you open it. This is comparable with the Dantain in other Novels. When a person is born their inborn True Fate will fall into one of the Grades and these are, from low to high: Mortal, Houtian, Xantian, King and Saint. Normally, it is impossible to be born with an immortal True Fate, the only known exception is Long Jing Xian. Once a cultivator reaches higher realms of Cultivation they have the opportunity to open more with the maximum being Twelve Fate Palaces. Cultivators can create a "World" inside their Fate Palaces. Upon reaching certain number of Fate Palaces: four to create a Domain, eight to create a Kingdom and twelve to create the Heavens. The only past record of a Twelve Fate Palace Cultivator from the Nine Worlds is Immortal Emperor Jiao Heng and Long Jing Xian. Li Qiye was able to build up and surpass the limit by having thirteen Fate Palaces and he will likely be the only one in all of history. As a person uses up "space" to create a Fate Palace and Twelve is when a person as used up all the "space" they have so in order for Li Qiye to build up thirteen he had to expand the "space" he has in order to open his thirteenth Fate Palace. The Suppression from Heaven will not allow thirteen Fate Palaces to be created The only person capable of surviving the Suppression is someone with an Unshakeable Dao Heart like Li Qiye. A Life Wheel Appears behind the head and resides in the Neck it represents how long a Cultivator will live (their Longevity) and has a corresponding grade at Birth and cant be changed under normal circumstances. It also represents how much Blood Energy you would have at birth with a Saint Wheel having the most and a Mortal having the least. Blood Energy is a move utilising the Physical strength and Physique of a Cultivator. The Higher your Cultivation the more Blood Energy you have. Their is also an Event called a Longevity Calamity that will befall all Cultivator and it is an event that has killed many Cultivators. Mortal, Houtian, Xantian, King, Saint. A Mortal who has not cultivated will have a Life Wheel of Sixty Years. Physique This is the physical body of a cultivator and protects the True Fate. Physiques can have many different types and different grades: Mortal, Houtian, Xantian, King, Saint, Immortal. There are 24 King Physique. 18 Saint Physiques and 12 Immortal Physiques Unlike the Fate Palace and Life Wheel which can't be changed after Birth the Physique of a person can be improved by using the appropriate Merit Law. The Mortal Physique can be cultivated to any grade however it is exceedingly difficult. The Houtain Physique although it cannot be upgraded to higher levels it can be improved until it reaches a degree that can rival an Immortal Physique. The Xantian and above can be improved by using the next level of Merit Law. The Physique of a person can be cultivated to two levels first is a Small Accomplishment Physique and the second is a Grand Accomplishment Physique however when passing these two levels the cultivator will have to endure something called a Physique Calamity which if you cant support then the Cultivator will die. An immortal Physique at Grand Accomplishment would allow a cultivator to survive a fight against an Immortal Emperor . Li Qiye obtained the Physique Scripture which allows him to have all the Progenitor Physique Laws which is one of the main reasons he has the ability to train Immortal Emperors. There are 24 King Physiques, 18 Saint Physiques and 12 Immortal Physiques. Only two Cultivators in the history of the Nine Worlds have had multiple Physiques the first is the Black Dragon King who had two Immortal Physiques reach Grand Accomplishment which allowed him to kill Immortal Emperor Ta Kong and tear his Heavens Will. Li Qiye is also the only other to have multiple Physiques however he has Four Immortal Physiques reach Grand Accomplishment: * Hell Suppression Immortal Physique (increases his weight allowing him to"suppress" Hell through strength) * Soaring Immortal Physique (increases speed and at Grand Accomplishment allows him to shatter Space and Time) * Void Imperfection Immortal Physique (increases resistance to Merit Laws and Attacks) * Cleaving Axe Immortal Physique (transforms the body into a weapon allowing one to slaughter Gods and Demons) Ma Gu(Immortal Xu Cong) is the only cultivator in the history of the Nine Worlds that has a Longevity Immortal Physique at Grand Accomplishment which allows her to live an incredibly long time and control Time and when Li Qiye saw her Physique he stated that it was his proudest moment of his life. How they Work Together Their is a widespread saying amongst cultivators: The Physique grows one's Blood, the Blood feeds one's life Wheel, the Life Wheel strengthens ones Fate Palace, the Fate Palace, in turn helps strengthens one's Life Wheel, the Life Wheel, then supplements one's Blood, the Blood augments one's Physique' and the Physique, then protects one's Fate Palace. The Fate Palace, Life Wheel and Physique are all connected and without any one of them people would be unable to cultivate. A strong Physique allowed the Blood energy to be strong. The strong Blood Energy would prolong the Lifespan, the longer the lifespan, the stronger the Fate Palace, and a formidable Fate Palace allowed the Cultivator to obtain an even stronger Physique. The Fate Palace also lent its power to the Life Wheel. the Life Wheel would create Longevity Blood, the Longevity Blood would strengthen the Physique, and then the stronger Physique can protect the Fate Palace. However the entire system requires Blood Energy. If a cultivator's rank is too high, a weak Blood Energy will not support his formidable Physique, Life Wheel and Fate Palace. Thus a need for Longevity Blood which is Purified Blood Energy and in order to form one drop of Longevity Blood requres then thousand bits of Blood Energy and one drop of Immortal Emperor Blood Energy could allow a Mortal to live for Ten Thousand Years.This shows just how valuable it is. Halting Longevity This is a method for powerful cultivators of powerful sects to halt their Longevity(age) by going into a dormant or long sleep using Era Blood Stones which suppresses a Cultivators Blood Force(Blood Energy) the longer you want to live the more Blood Stones you will require.